Biological and natural processes have always been a source of inspiration for computer science and information technology. It is well known that biological entities, from single cell organisms -like bacteria- to humans, often engage in a rich repertoire of social interaction that could range from altruistic cooperation through open conflict. One specific kind of social interaction is cooperative problem solving (CPS), where a group of autonomous entities work together in order to achieve certain goal.

The NICSO 2010 aims at promoting cooperative problem solving strategies bringing together international researchers and practitioners from different disciplines in order to discuss the investigations and exchange ideas on the current state of the art of the topic. The conference seeks contributions that are inspired by Nature and that encompass a range of spatio-temporal scales, for visionary conceptions of information processing and computation as pertaining to cooperation mechanisms in the context of problem solving.

All submitted papers will be blind reviewed by at least two reviewers. Selection criteria will be based on relevance, originality, significance, impact, technical soundness and quality of the presentation. Contributions are expected to provide original results, insights and experimental innovations. Manuscripts must be in PDF, not exceeding 12 pages and conforming to the guidelines specified in the workshop's website. Contributions are welcome to submission through the system available at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nicso2010. The accepted papers will be published in the book series on Studies in Computational Intelligence (Springer). The authors of the best accepted papers will be invited to revise and extend their contributions for publication in a special issue in the Memetic Computing Journal (Springer).

This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses, which could damage your computer system: you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.